Lawyers wrangling over legal motions before start of Roger Clemens’ retrial on lying to Congress

Prosecutors and defense lawyers are back in federal court in the nation’s capital this afternoon to battle over pre-trial motions in Roger Clemens’ retrial on charges of lying to Congress.

Today’s scheduled hearing is the last legal step before jury selection begins on Monday in the re-run felony trial of the baseball superstar.

Pending motions include a long-standing request by Clemens’ lawyers for the Justice Department to pay the multimillion dollar legal costs of the first trial after prosecutors bungled testimony, provoking the second trial.

Both sides have filed rival motions as well on what can and cannot be said during defense lawyers’ opening arguments in the case.

Clemens is back on trial on six felony counts of lying to Congress thanks to a mistrial last July when prosecutors introduced testimony on the second day of testimony that had been banned by Judge Reggie Walton, an appointee of President George W. Bush.

The prosecution will have five lawyers on the case this time – up from two last summer – reflecting efforts to flyspeck every aspect of their case after the earlier misstep. Clemens’ defense, led by legendary Houston lawyer Rusty Hardin, includes six lawyers in what will likely be a four to six-week trial.

Prosecutors are contending that Clemens lied to Congress during a House inquiry into the use of performance enhancing drugs when he repeatedly insisted he had not used steroids.

Prosecutors’ star witnesses will be former strength coach Brian McNamee who claims he injected Clemens during the 1998, 2000 and 2001 baseball seasons.

Clemens’ former teammate and close friend Andy Pettitte also will be a prosecution witness to recount his claims that Clemens once told him of using human growth hormone.

Clemens played major league baseball for 24 seasons, pitching for the Boston Red Sox, the Toronto Blue Jays, the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros.
A native of Ohio, Clemens moved to Texas as a teenager to pitch at Spring Woods High. He later led the University of Texas to a national collegiate championship before going on to the major leagues to win 365 games and strike out 4,762 batters en route to seven Cy Young Awards, selection for 11 All-Star teams, two World Series championships with the Yankees, a Most Valuable Player award with the Red Sox and selection for baseball’s all-century team.